Posted on 08/05/2005 1:04:32 PM PDT by Reaganwuzthebest
The president, in a wide-ranging talk, gives a hint at how he'll pitch reform measures
GRAPEVINE - President Bush told a crowd of state legislators Wednesday that he will push immigration reform as beneficial for U.S. employers as well as foreigners looking for work.
He also made an impassioned pitch for Americans to stay behind the war in Iraq.
"Immigration reform is going to be an interesting subject when we get back to Washington" in September, said Bush, who plans to spend this month at his Crawford ranch.
He argued that his proposal for a "guest worker" program is good for employers and illegal immigrants who want a mutually beneficial relationship.
"If you are a willing employer (and) you have somebody looking for work and you can't find an American, there ought to be a legal way for you to employ that person," he said. "We'd rather have people coming in with a card that said, 'I'm a legal worker,' than trying to sneak across the border."
The president has proposed a system under which immigrants would be granted worker temporary worker status, after which they would have to leave the United States. Critics have called it a thinly veiled amnesty program. Immigration reform plans have stalled in Congress so far this year, and Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist recently suggested a GOP push on the issue was more likely to happen next year.
Talking hours after the first reports that 14 U.S. Marines were killed in Iraq, Bush said, "The violence in recent days in Iraq is a grim reminder of the enemies we face. These terrorists and insurgents will use brutal tactics because they're trying to shake the will of the United States of America."
With polls showing that public support for continued military involvement in Iraq is eroding in the face of steady casualties, Bush relied on a familiar linkage of the war with the larger struggle against terrorism. He said Americans who died in Iraq and Afghanistan "lost their lives in a noble cause."
Speaking to 1,800 people at the American Legislative Exchange Council conference, Bush basked in recent legislative victories delivered by a GOP majority in Congress, including the Central American Free Trade Agreement and energy and highways legislation.
Bush said his priorities when Congress reconvenes after Labor Day will be immigration reform, making his tax cuts permanent, getting Supreme Court nominee John G. Roberts confirmed and resurrecting his Social Security reform initiative.
Bush drew loud cheers by saying he strongly believed in private retirement accounts for workers under 55. "Now is the time to permanently fix Social Security," he said.
The event was held at a mammoth convention center where visiting legislators were introduced to Texas pride, including a large replica of the Alamo, a 10-foot-long space shuttle model and other state symbols.
Better yet - prison labor. All the costs (like room and board) would be paid by the taxpayers.
That is why we need longer prison sentences, easier convictions (it is obvious that the accused criminals must be guilty) etc ...
I think that could be an important contributing factor. This has been my theory for the last 20 yrs or so: once you are done with collecting unemployment, you are off the unemployment rolls. Voila! One less person unemployed.
I do not want to hear the hornswaggle about these figures being derived from the unemployment office conducting phone surveys. No one is contacted after benefits run out, unless it's a post card letting you know that there is a training program free of charge opening up in your area.
Gray area employment isn't just for illegals anymore...
They keep telling the lie, but less and less people are believing it.
There are some pretty nasty posts on this thread too.
How do we appoint you Attorney General?
How about this? Prisoners work for farms, etc. Half their wages go for their room and board, and the other half can be put into a savings account.
Bush could really go jump in the river on this. He is wrong and making matters much worse. Shame shame shame.
Cheap wine is cheap wine, no matter where it comes from.
As to the other, we put a man on the moon. Tell me that we cannot figure out a way to automate other aspects of agriculture.
Sorry. Not interested.
To become Attorney General, you have to play politics and kiss Democrat Senator's butts for confirmation. Basically, you have to not say what you mean and not mean what you say.
As I noted in Post 76, I'm holding out for the position of Emperor of the Unites States. I promise to fix thing and then, like the Roman Emperor Diocletian, retire. ;-)
Yes, we could. But, would it be cost effective?
Would you pay the same price for King Crab as you would pay for a tomato that is not smashed?
The Guest Worker program proposed by President Bush is exactly the same program that we (the Navy) had in Guantanamo Naval Base in regards to Jamaican workers when I was stationed there during the Reagan Administration.
1. We have jobs that needs doing and American workers don't want to do it.
2. We will allow you to come here to do that job for X amount of money.
3. When the job is done, you go back to Jamaica.
It worked for them. It worked for us. Nobody got a Green Card out of it. They got Dollars. We got services. Everyone was happy. Life was good.
In "First World" countries, there are many jobs that the native-borns do not want to do. In Germany, they import Turks and, Islam being what Islam is, they would love to have Mexicans instead of Turks.
The Germans, however, have at least tried to get some degree of control over the workers that work in Germany. For example, you could be a third generation German-born Turkish worker and still not qualify for German citizenship.
We Americans, on the other hand, don't address the problem, stick our heads in the sand and say we don't need workers. Agri-business then bribes Congress with campaign contributions to totally ignore immigration enforcement to get the workers that they need and, as a result...........we have immigration anarchy.
Truth in Advertising means this line should be 'wages American citizens won't accept.'
No cheers, unfortunately.
They have no choice. They would love to have Christian Mexican guest workers rather than Muslim guest workers. Even when they make lemonade when life gives them lemons, they at least, address the problem instead of allowing total anarchy as the U.S. currently allows.
Tell me, how exactly do you plan to get rid of guest workers who decide they want to be something more than guests? If we do not have the will for deportations now, what will magically happen then?
I addressed that in Post 193 and in Post 269
. Also, what will you do about the guest workers who have anchor babies? Do you think we have the will to deny citizenship to the children of guest workers?
I addressed that in Post 313
Finally, "jobs Americans won't do" is a canard. What we have is a situation where illegals have artificially decreased the wages and benefits to a point that Americans cannot afford to do those jobs.
Do you know any Americans who want to do agricultural stoop labor? Do you know any Americans who want to pay $3 for a tomato?
Yes, Americans could be paid enough to do these jobs and then the cost of living for other Americans would rise to the point that they would have a hard time putting food on the table.
It's a little ways off the subject, but for what it is worth, "you-pick-it" (a.k.a "u-pick-it") operations seem to be popular enough from what I have seen.
When they open some of the ones that I have been to, you had better be there early or it's going to be slim pickings.
To wander even more distantly from the topic at hand, even in Japan you can find such operations, especially the ichigo (strawberry) ones, though my experience has been that those are more oriented toward immediate consumption of the strawberries than carry-away.
Why savings? It makes tham less competitive with the Chinese prison labor.
"Do they have any idea how much this pisses people off?"
No, obviously not. If you are in the building trades...or semi-skilled trades... you are lower than a piece of maggot crap on their heels. They have no idea that by hiring illegals, it depresses wages. And of course these "savings" are never passed on to the end consumer. So, if you TRY to be legit and play by the rules, you get SCREWED by your scumbag competitors AND your own government. So, make all the illegals "legal" right?
Not!
The dirtbag employers will just fire these new "legals" and tap into the steady stream of illegals once again.
Same old...same old. Career polititians don't have to contend with this crap...they're completely oblivious to it.
Clueless.
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